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I’m not on any travel ban list - Ekweremadu

Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, yesterday denied media report that he was on the list of Nigerians barred from traveling out of the country on the request of the Special Presidential Investigative Panel on the Recovery of Public Property.

According to a statement by Ekweremadu's Special Adviser, Media, Uche Anichukwu, Ekweremadu, was not in court with the panel or any other government agency over any corruption case, adding that it was the panel that sued him, with the excuse that he allegedly "neglected to declare" his assets "in the manner prescribed by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property".

A statement yesterday by Ekweremadu's Special Adviser, Media, Uche Anichukwu, read, " the attention of the Office of the Deputy President of the Senate has been drawn to a misleading report by a national newspaper that Senator Ike Ekweremadu has been barred from traveling out of the country on the request of the Special Presidential Investigative Panel on the Recovery of Public Property.

"For purpose of clarification and emphasis, the Office wishes to restate that Ekweremadu is not in court with the panel or any other government agency over any corruption case. He was rather sued by the SPIP on the grounds that he, in the Panel's words, allegedly "neglected to declare" his assets "in the manner prescribed by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property".

"Ekweremadu's position is that the Constitution demands every public officer to declare his or her assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau every four years, a provision he had since fulfilled, hence his refusal to fill fresh asset declaration forms forwarded to him by the panel contrary to the constitution.

"It is also his position that the Public Property Special Provisions Act, CAP R4 LFN, 2004, otherwise known as Decree No 3, 1984, which the Panel relied on to charge public officials to court has become obsolete and the power to investigate non-asset declaration is now vested in the Code of Conduct Bureau by the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Therefore, only the Code of Conduct Bureau can receive asset declaration forms from public officers."